Digital - Alfred Sant

When one tries to understand what the really fundamental changes were worldwide and in this country, the conclusion is likely to be that such changes did not follow from the decline of colonial empires, or the collapse of the Soviet Union, or the resurgence of China. The most important change, one that is still spreading at an astonishing pace, is that of the digital revolution.

Not only did it generate an eno rmous acceleration in the use and development of computers. It also created new and radically new methods by which we communicate with each other, travel, learn, enjoy ourselves, behave in our everyday lives. I would even reckon that given the speed with which all these changes are happening, the digital mode will likely penetrate too the procedures by which we die.

Indeed, the digital presence is impacting all aspects of our life. This means that those societies which fail to learn how to use digital tools or how to use them well, will falter or drop back relative to others. To complicate matters, it will be impossible for anybody to claim that one has assimilated all that needs to be known about the digital sector and nothing more needs be done. Unless the digital knowledge and practice one has acquired by a certain point are not continually renewed, one could, in a short while, feel as lost in the digital world as those who never cared to approach it.

An unusual summer

No summer resembles the previous one. Last year’s was truly unique as Malta got caught in the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and the facile optimism that had characterised the first phase soon changed to depression as well as apprehension about what the future held.

In terms of what can be seen right now, Malta will be exiting or will have completely exited from the Covid-19 fall-out as the summer matures. Leading economic sectors will be striving to get their business off the ground after the stagnation and worse of recent months.

The success of efforts to pump up their operations – or much of it – will depend on developments outside the country.

It could happen that this summer will give us a demonstration of how and whether the model for economic development that we have been following in past decades is viable over the long term.

The Portuguese Presidency

At the end of this month, Portugal’s stint at the presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers comes to an end. I believe that all things considered, it has been one of the most effective presidencies of recent years. On a number of fronts, the Portuguese side was prepared with their set agenda that also reflected the social, democratic perspectives of the present government led by Antonio Costa.

Actually, an emphasis on the Union’s social policy was continually maintained, as well as a commitment for the Union to not delay the implementation of its plan for economic rescue and recovery to counter the damage caused by the pandemic. The Porto Summit may not have greatly altered the turn that Europe’s social policy has taken, but it did at least nail into place the concept that social targets should remain central in European initiatives to the same extent as economic and environmental aims.

Where the activism of the Portuguese presidency failed was on the immigration front. The same happened with all other previous presidencies.

Can the future be planned?

Over the last forty years, the overwhelming grip that the free market concept has acquired over how economic policy is run resulted in a total loss of the prestige which planning previously enjoyed.

It makes no sense to plan for the future if the market is bound to determine which line of activity will prevail. Moreover, beyond this, decisions are bound to get taken which will – always in reaction to market outcomes – confirm unanticipated directions from which investment and employment opportunities willl emerge. No plan – no matter who sets it up – can successfully predict such developments.

One must admit that valid arguments back this approach, especially in the context of a globalization that is driven by the principles of free trade.

On the other hand, even in such a framework, whoever is running an enterprise, or a national or a continental economy, must select a compass by which to direct matters.

There has to be some expectation regarding how circumstances will develop. Some register must be kept as to what is performing well and less well in the “vessel” that is under guidance. Over a timespan of say five years or more, a targeted list of the objectives to attain should be available.

OK, let’s not call this a plan. Surely, the future is not being “planned” if such a procedure were to be followed. But a coordinated approach by which to meet the future is surely well needed.

Military policy

French President Macron’s decision to withdraw his country’s troops from Mali will provide a stronger focus for the initiative ongoing within the EU that aims to create a common European security and defence policy.

Up to now this has rumbled forward because of the support that France always wished it would get for its military sorties in Africa. Also, there was the anxiety felt by some eastern European countries about the pressures they believed they were being subjected to by Russia (whether true or not) and their need therefore to find somewhere some kind of backing. And then there were the recent disturbances that Donald Trump engineered in relations between Europe and the US.

Clearing from the table the issues that related to the problems arising from the French intervention in Mali – even though new Islamic threats are likely to arise in the Sahel – should clarify the choices that the EU faces as it continues to develop its own military policy. The road being followed is a very dangerous one.

Alphabet soup

When US President Franklin Roosevelt launched his New Deal policies to get America out of the economic and social stagnation of the 1930’s, he established a wide variety of programmes and organizations to manage the radical reforms he had in mind.

Each project would have its name abbreviated to the first letter of every word its title carried. So many abbreviations of the full names of projects began to appear that soon Roosevelt’s projects met with derision: adversaries would claim he had merely succeeded to concoct an “alphabet soup”.

I remembered this recently while taking a look at some of the EU’s working documents covering projects old and new. To understand them well, one needed to navigate around these abbreviations: MSSP; ENISA; CSIRT; EC3; DNS; CERT; TLD; TFEU; EU-CyCLONe; EEAS; CRM; CSDP; EASA; EUSPA; NIS; RSB; CEPS; ICF; OES; REFIT.

And there were others!